Crescendo
by GhettoGorgeousGangstaGirl
Summary: Jack tries to figure out why a 17 year old girl could see him one day but walk right through him the next. Meanwhile More and more children have been disappearing every year. It started a trickle but has now become far too much to ignore. It is up to the guardians to find out who is taking the children and where they've been taken to.
1. Chapter 1

(Alright. A little break from the comic book stuff. I've seen the movie and read the books and now I'm on a serious guardians kick. I have three stories planned. -Although I'm sure by now you all know how I am.- Pitch, Jack, and Bunny. This is for Jack. I considered waiting for his to be introduced in the books but that's not till September and I'm now waiting. Unless of course it takes until September for me to actually publish this in which case, Never mind. We're going to go ahead and start with a bit of an intro for my girl.

If any of my usual readers are still will me, I know I work slow! I don't have an abundance of time but I do still work on these from time to time. I _do _intend to write the Two-Face story you're all requesting. I'm just having trouble coming up with ideas, and I am also still working on the Daredevil story. So bear with me, please.)

It had to be... about 17 years ago her parents found her in that alleyway. A young child, no more then a year no less then 7 months, surrounded by rats and crying her poor, scared, infant lungs out. They were bewildered and appalled that anyone would leave a baby all alone in the midst of an alley downtown to be devoured by rats. Her, soon to be, adoptive father moved in to scatter the rats and picked up the small scrap of a child to, thankfully, find her completely unharmed if a little dirty and wrapped in thick fleece blanket so covered in grim that it appeared dark brown in the dim glow of the street lights.

At the hospital she was given a fairly clean bill of health aside from a slight cough she likely got for being in and alley at night. While the police record for missing children was checked they began discussing what they would do with her if no one stepped up to claim her. If perhaps she'd been left there on purpose or if, perhaps, something had happened to her parents. You see, the couple hadn't been able to have they're own child and this tragedy had the makings of a blessing in disguise. They actually found themselves morbidly hoping there was no one to claim her.

They're wishes came true. There had been nothing on the database, not that she matched, but it was still too soon. From the looks of her she couldn't have been left or taken long ago. So they volunteered to foster her while they waited for news of anyone who may be looking for her. She stayed in the foster care system for a year and the missing child's database for much longer. After that first year the couple decided none one was coming for and adopted her themselves.

Finally they had a happy, healthy child to call their own... With only one hitch. At the age of 10 she was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. What they thought had only been a child's over active imagination became worrisome when she became unnervingly insistent about the existence of giant rabbits and small otherworldly creatures living in the trees. She'd seen 20 foot bats and flickering lights in the night with no possible source. They let it go for three years, growing increasingly more frustrated with her insistence of these impossible things, though never once did they regret keeping her. They did, however, start to wish that they had access to her biological families medical records. It wasn't until one night when she ran as fast as she could from the dinner table to the window, crying out with excitement, little fingers pointing to the sky. "The lights!" She said, bouncing about as if to reach them. "Look at the lights! Look how pretty!" Try as they might the child would not be convinced that there was nothing there. The night sky was just as dark as it always was save the moon and stars. That was the first time they considered that there may be something wrong.

She was put on a regimen of regular medications prescribed by a psychiatrist. At first it seemed the means were worse then the end when she grew tired and lethargic but that soon faded and everything was back to normal except she no longer stopped to watch events that weren't happening when they went out, there was no mention of giant animals, and she never saw the lights again. At first she missed the creatures and magic. None of it had been scary or frightening for her, not usually though there were a few times before and after those lights and she had upset her but that had stopped along with everything else once her medication began.

Now at 17 she's a fairly happy teenager. The hardest thing she'd ever done in her life was moving to a new state because the schools were supposed to be better there. Her average day consists of school before retiring to work at Kewl Beans, a small Cafe about and hours bus ride from home. The Cafe was owned by a kind but sometimes frantic young woman who believed in using everyone to they're potential. The girl's potential had been discovered at the age of 12. She could sing. Not only could she sing but she appeared to draw others in with her voice. Milly, the owner of Kewl Beans, noticed this almost immediately. When the flow of customers was slower then they would like she would be sent outside to stand amongst the tables and fence and sing for potential costumers, on colder days she would be places at the stage in front of the shop where the live entertainment would usually perform. That would get business going at least for a while.

Humans weren't the only ones affected by her voice. When she would sing even then animals would scurry from their hiding places, though they wouldn't come close. They would hang back in the safety of their trees and crevices and simply watch. As she grew older they would come slightly close and she found that if she truly tried she could convince them to come right up to her and even follow her around. This is how she got her pet rat.

He isn't a sewer rat. No, Scamp came from a pet store that she passed everyday on her walk to work from the high school. One day she had been passing this very pet store and singing as she always did to make the walk seem fast. A sudden weight on her leg stopped her in her tracks. When she looked down, there, climbing her pants was a sizable gray rat and a few feet behind her was a grateful boy, no older then her, chasing it down. Feeling oddly attached to the critter she bought him and everything he would need then and there. Milly allowed her to keep him in the back with the inventory for until her shift ended on the grounds that she never, ever, bring him back. This was a promise easily kept. Her parents weren't happy to see him. He was, after all, a reminder of her tragic beginnings but they didn't have a reason to tell her to take him back.

Now every day she goes to school then goes to work, except on the weekends when she has no school, then she returned to her home and has dinner with her parents. Then every night, when her homework is done, she crawls into bed and curls up with the thick fleece blanket her parents found her with, the only thing that makes her wonder 'What if?' At first her parents had wanted to simply throw the dirty rag away but out of curiosity her mother had chosen instead to wash it. The dirt hadn't clung very hard. What she pulled out of the washing machine wasn't the grimy cloth she'd thrown in, though, admittedly it wasn't greatly attractive. In fact it was rather gaudy. A bright red and yellow large checkered cloth with equally bright green lettering, with a darker blue boarder to make it more legible, that simply read **Crescendo**.


	2. Chapter 2

(Chapter 2! Alright guys I know I keep you waiting and I'm sorry. For those of you looking for Can't Turn the Blind the next chapter should but up sometime this summer along with Chapter three for Crescendo!)

Crescendo sighed, leaning on one elbow against the counter. Business was slow again. It tended to do that in midday, especially on the weekday. Normally during this time of day she would be at school but thanks to a snow day she was saved from a long day of books and study. Since she didn't have anything planned for the day but school and a little extra money never hurt she'd volunteered to work. At first she was denied but five minutes later Milly called back because one of the other girls had been snowed into her house.

The morning had been busy enough what with people coming in for breakfast before work and a morning cup of coffee or just to escape the cold for a while on their way to where they were going. Things slowed to a trickle then at lunch rush it picked up again. It was slow going from there. She glanced up at the clock again, three hours left. Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut and stayed home to enjoy the snow day like a normal person. Right now she was bored out of her mind and, stupid her, she forgot the bring a book.

Out the window the snow was still going but not nearly as bad as it had been last night. The sun was even shining brightly. Too bad it would set soon. She never did get used to the shorter days of the winter. At least it looked warmer now then it was on her way here. She watched people pass by the shop. Some would look up at the sign or into the window but no one seemed interested in they're new Ginger Bread and Pumpkin Spice Latte. Only around for the holidays. Get one of these and a medium sandwich for only 5.99. For just 30 cents more you can add any fresh backed cookie at the counter. It was the same thing every year. For those who aren't coffee drinkers they also had hot chocolate and various teas. A costumer could get any flavor in any drink form they wanted and it would cost the same. Except for kids hot chocolate was $1.75 cheaper.

"Hey, Cindy?" Milly called, peering from the back. "You think you can pull in a bit of business?"

"Um..." Crescendo looked from her boss back to the window to see if there was any business to pull in. There was a steady flow of people outside. "Yeah. I think I can get some people in here... How cold is it outside?" She wasn't sure she wanted to stand outside if she was going to freeze.

"It got a bit warmer. Thermometer says about 30." That sounded fine. She could do that for a while. Since she walked to work she had her big downy coat so she was a bit more prepared for the cold then she normally would be.

"Okay. Yeah, that's fine." She affirmed and pulled her shimmery pearl coat off the coat rack. "Tell Berny to get out here." Bernadette had taken her break about half an hour after things started to slow down. "And tell her to make some hot chocolate!" She called over her shoulder as she pushed the shop doors open.

"Thanks, Cindy! Oh! And remember! Holidays!"

She was immediately hit by a wall of freezing air and shivered before taking a moment to compose herself. Rubbing her white knit gloves together she resisted the urge to just run back inside. Milly paid her a little extra for every time she managed to get the day started up again and she didn't like when Milly had to struggle to keep the shop open and the winter months were always the hardest on her. She let out a puff of misty air before taking a deep breath.

"Just hear those sleigh bells jinglin', ring ting tinglin' too. Come on, it's lovely whether for a sleigh ride together with you!"

The affect was almost immediate to everyone near by. It didn't look like much. Just a bunch of people taking interest in a girl singing loudly in the street but almost everyone who came close to the shop was drawn in. First they started to move in a crowd around her and on occasion one of them would hand her a dollar or two, thinking her to be just a street performer. The crowd would start small and slowly more people would trickle in. The whole scene looked casual, people standing around, bundled in they're coats and jackets. Some where enjoying themselves others looked like they were just in a hurry to get out of the snow. Anyone passing by wouldn't think anything was strange. Then again anyone passing by would likely join the crowd.

Spirits were no exception. Jack Frost, the spirit of winter and fun _had_ been passing by in the moment. Loud whooping and laughter or pure joy that only those who believed could hear echoed through the streets and he rode the winds hard and fast, spreading snow and ice over the town. Frosting over windows and dropping fresh coats of snow on the streets and sidewalks. Instigating snow ball fights with his fun filled snowballs as he was aught to do, an activity he's enjoyed even more over the years now that more and more children were coming to believe in him every year.

He still didn't have his own hideaway equip with the globe of belief that the others had but he was fine with that, he was happier being out and playing with the children then cooped up in some old warren or birdcage so when he needed a rest or just somewhere to be he spent a lot of time North's workshop now that the Yeti's stopped throwing him out thanks to his new Guardian statues, though North still didn't like him causing mischief in his house.

Jack had just been passing through and frosting up a smaller shopping district of one of the more sizable small towns when he caught a note as he was passing small coffee shop and a note was all it took. He stopped hard letting the wind that had been propelling him shoot by and he dropped to the rooftop across the street.

It didn't take him very long to locate the source of the music that had captured his attention. A young girl, about as old as he looked. He couldn't see much of her from where he was, due largely impart to her thick coat and white knit cap she was wearing but he did catch a glimpse of her mid length blond hair blowing about in the wind as she struggled against it, though she didn't loose a beat. He was tempted to move close to get a better look at her but he wasn't sure if he even could with all the people crowding around her.

She was accepting money and trying to excite the crowd but most of the adults were to cold to do anything but keep themselves wrapped up tight in their clothes. The children were less concerned with the weather. There were a few young kids in the crowds of people who reacted pretty positively to her when she moved closer and seemed to address them.

The Cafe doors opened behind her and she was handed a trey with steaming cups of hot chocolate. He smiled when the first things she did with it was begin handing them out to the younger children. After a moment she checked the crowd, standing on her toes to see how many people there where. "Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we." She picked up one more cup and gave it to one of the children before stepping aside and holding the door to the cafe open. About half of the crowd began to amble forward into the shop, a few of them being pulled along by children who were excited for more hot chocolate. "We're snuggled up together like to birds of a feather should be." as they moved inside she handed cups to a few more people and seeing a so many people walking into the shop seemed to have enticed others away from their task and those from the crowd who didn't seem interested in being in the cafe began to disperse and continue on their way.

"Lets take the road before us and sing a chorus or two." She checked the sidewalk again, he guessed to see if there was anyone else she could get to come in. Suddenly she looked up and Jack froze as she seemed to lock eyes with him. If he still needed to breathe he was sure it would have caught in his chest and his heart would have jumped if it were still beating. There's was no way. She' had to be at least 17 the chances that she could actually see him was slim to none. He was proven wrong when she waved to him, inviting him down to join the festivities in the cafe. Confused, the winter spirit looked about himself encase there was someone else there she could be waving to. When he found no one he looked back at her. "Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you." A few more people trickled into the shop as the song came to close and she spared him one last glance. When he didn't move she simply shrugged and went back inside, retreating into the warmth.

Crescendo looked around proudly at her handy work. There was a nice line at the counter and the cafe was filling in. She took the few dollars she'd made in the performance and bought another round of hot chocolate for the kids.


End file.
